Two Unprecedented Recipes

With the arrival of a pound of cricket powder and pristine Floridian summer weather, I’ve whipped together some strange masterpieces in the kitchen. The days stream by as the warm, delicate sunlight dapples the planet with a persistent reminder of hope. Even amongst all the chaos, both internal and external, a warm patch of grass and stray meandering cloud are never absent from your potential experience. And if you have a tropical climate, buzzing garden, and free time then I invite you into the kitchen to get it popping.

The first pioneering concoction to come out of my mental kitchen this week is a cricket powder infused banana pancake. I don’t have exact measurements for it, but you probably want it a little less liquid than the picture below. The pancakes ended up being a bit heap-ish and heathenish, though they weren’t any less scrumptious for it. The ingredients I used were: dry pulp leftover from coconut milk, cricket powder, a banana, chocolate peanut butter powder, maple pecan “malk”, a couple crushed cloves, a piece of cinnamon, some nutmeg, salt, apple cider vinegar, and baking soda. I hoped that the acidity with the baking soda would make the pancake rise, which the heaviness of the liquid mixture didn’t allow for. When topped with some berries, this turned out prime. Cricket powder also contains (according to the cricketeers at Chapul) “2x more protein than beef, 4x more iron than spinach, and more vitamin B-12 than salmon). It’s also loaded with protein. For muscle-building to defend humanity in the coming agricultural crisis.

Next up, a “dish” that I conglomerated by fucking around in the kitchen long enough. I started with a pesto using hemp seeds, pecans, pistachios, extra virgin olive oil, lemon-infused olive oil, apple cider vinegar, moringa, kale, basil, water, a piece of apple, roast garlic, nutritional yeast, a little coconut butter, and salt and pepper to achieve a thick sauce consistency. With this base, it’s hard to go astray. I sautéed zucchini noodles “zoodles” with a spoonful or two of pesto, roasted sweet potato, garlic, bell pepper, maitake mushroom, and garlic and combined everything as I pleased. I added cloves, chipotle, and cayene to the sweet potato and olive oil with S+P to the rest. The purple stuff is red cabbage sauerkraut that’s been fermenting for almost two months. Finally, I shredded up some cranberry hibiscus and katuk for a green vibrant crunch. I don’t ask you to recreate this precisely. It came together in a culinary tempest. But the sauce/roast veg/fresh herb/acidic ferment combo is a technique to consider…